The bipartisan effort to compel the Justice Department to release all files related to its case against the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein will soon see momentum after a long delay.
Democratic Arizona congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva is set to be sworn in by House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday afternoon after a 50-day wait. Grijalva, who won a special election in September to succeed her late father, has pledged to be the final signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on the release of the Epstein files.
The discharge petition — a legislative maneuver that allows members to circumvent leadership to force a vote if the petition receives a simple majority of signatures — is sponsored by Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna. The measure could come to the House floor as early as the first week of December.
Johnson repeatedly defended his decision to not seat Grijalva during the government shutdown, arguing his chamber’s extended recess while the Senate debated a House-passed spending bill had tied his hands. The House had not been in session before this week since Sept. 19, when it cleared a stopgap spending bill to avoid a government shutdown over the objections of nearly all House Democrats.
Democrats, however, accused the speaker of deliberately postponing Grijalva’s swearing-in to delay a vote on releasing the Epstein files.
Grijalva’s special election victory also narrowed House Republicans’ slim majority. Johnson will be able to spare just two GOP votes to pass legislation along party lines.
Besides Massie — three other GOP lawmakers, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Lauren Boebert of Colorado — have also signed the discharge petition.
President Donald Trump notably criticized Greene in the Oval Office Monday. Greene has argued the president is spending too much time on foreign affairs and not paying enough attention to domestic policy issues.
“I don’t know what happened to Marjorie,” Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “She’s a nice woman, but I don’t know what happened. She’s lost her way, I think.”
Johnson said in October that he would not attempt to kill the discharge petition if it notched 218 signatures, but has criticized lawmakers for moving forward with the procedural maneuver.
“Unfortunately, some Democrats, and sadly even a couple Republicans, have tried to make this a political issue,” Johnson said during a press conference in October, referring to the discharge petition. “They seem to be more interested in trying somehow to lay a glove on the President than in securing justice for these victims. And I think that is shameful.”
The speaker has also argued that the House Oversight Committee’s probe will uncover more information than the Massie-Khanna legislation because it is “broader in scope.”
“The Bipartisan House Oversight Committee is already accomplishing what the discharge petition, that gambit, sought and much more,” Johnson said.
The Oversight panel’s Epstein investigation could ramp up once the 43-day shutdown concludes. The House is expected to approve a Senate-passed spending package to reopen the government Wednesday evening.
The Massie-Khanna legislation could face uncertain prospects in the Senate if it ultimately passes the lower chamber. Republican leaders have not committed to holding a vote on the legislation and it would have to secure seven GOP votes to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.
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